Don’t Curb Your Enthusiasm

Marcus Yallow + 50 Years = Marty Hench?

The “Marty Hench” figure from the cover of Red Team Blues, next to the “M1k3y” figure (with large, binary-digit-lined red “X”) from the cover of Little Brother.

The old crow is getting slow;

the young crow is not.

Of what the young crow does not know,

the old crow knows a lot.

At knowing things,

the old crow is still the young crow’s master.

What does the old crow not know?

How to go faster.

The young crow flies above, below,

and rings around the slow old crow.

What does the fast young crow not know?

WHERE TO GO.

-John Ciardi, About Crows


Marcus Yallow is the 17-year-old hero of Little Brother, my 2008 novel about kids in San Francisco who wage high-tech guerrilla war on the Department of Homeland Security, who occupy the city after a terrorist attack.
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Pluralistic: Hollywood is the single best example of mature labor power in America; On the Media on the enshittification (pt 1) (06 May 2023)


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Pluralistic: Look at all the great stuff we lost because of inflation scare-talk (05 May 2023)


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Pluralistic: Ostromizing democracy (04 May 2023)


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Pluralistic: The Swivel-Eyed Loons Have A Point (03 May 2023)


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Pluralistic: Oops! All linkdump! (02 May 2023)


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Pluralistic: When you hear "fintech," think "unlicensed bank" (01 May 2023)


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Weak Institutions

It’s not a fair fight.

A bank fault. In front of the vault is a guardhouse. it is guarded by a crying baby in an impressive, oversized uniform
Kyle Flood, CC BY-SA 2.0, modified

I don’t care who does the electing, so long as I get to do the nominating.

— Boss Tweed.

Around 2010, I had a problem. My kid was just turning two, and finally starting to sleep through the night, which was a blessing, but then a mysterious company bought the building next door to our east London flat.

The building next door had been sitting empty for years, ever since a safety inspection determined that a) it was full of asbestos and b) it lacked a fire-exit. Either one of these made the building unfit for commercial or residential use, and the long-term tenants had moved into other office buildings in the neighborhood.
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Pluralistic: The seductive, science fictional power of spreadsheets (29 Apr 2023)


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Pluralistic: Convicted monopolist prevented from re-offending (27 Apr 2023)


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